Bible

On Monday, I posted about the difficulties in reading Matthew 7 as a whole. Far easier to read a paragraph in isolation; hard to articulate what the chapter as a whole is about and how each paragraph contributes to that.

Both Matthew 5 and Matthew 6 have a clear structure. Each chapter also has a clear message - Jesus seems to be developing one clear theme in each chapter. This is not the place to go into what the structure and message of each chapter is.

Photo: Germán Póo-CaamañoLots of churches have had their summer holiday clubs for children - they do them as soon as term finishes. We do ours the other end of the summer - just after the bank holiday weekend.

(Quick plug: If you live in or near Kemsing, and have children who have just finished a year at primary school, we can probably still fit you in - 4 mornings starting Tuesday 27th August).

I'm looking over some of the resources we've got for the club. Never mind which one we're using, as I'm not wanting to make a point about any resource in particular. As it happens, I think the resource we're using for this year's club is excellent.

I'm just coming to the end of a preaching series in 1 John. (11 sermons down, 1 to go on 1 John 5:13-21). This short letter will get another outing in September in a different context.

As I've preached through 1 John chapter 5, it has increasingly felt that this chapter has a summing up and drawing together function. The main threads of the letter come together.

Coming across through a few old files on the computer, I found something I'd written on Job - ooh, back in 2007. At least, I think I wrote it. If someone else recognises this as their thoughts and writing on Job, I apologise. And I thank you.

Anyway - I wrote about how easy it is to misunderstand the book, and to draw conclusions that the book does not support:

Here are 4 really quite common ways in which the book of Job is misunderstood.

I feel prompted to post part of Psalm 2 this morning

¹ Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
³ “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

I've just taken delivery of the commentary on 1-3 John (paid link) by Colin Kruse, published in the Pillar series by IVP.

Smalley (paid link), commenting on 1 John 2:3, is very helpful on the place of obedience in the Christian life.

Genesis 2:18 describes God making Eve as a "helper" (עֵזֶר) for Adam.

This particular word occurs 19 times in the Old Testament, and it pays to notice carefully what it does and does not mean elsewhere.

What was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and why was it a sin to eat its fruit?

Bruce Waltke is very helpful, on page 86 of his Genesis commentary (paid link):